Meeting Remco Vroom, TABWORLD

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Another rapidly rising trend I learnt more about at Cannes is Augmented Reality, or AR as techies often calls it.

For example, at the Lions, they had a second-screen app that added an AR tour to the Cannes Lions Press Exhibition. By scanning the ads on display, visitors could augment the ads and hear what the creative directors had to say about their work. Cool and functional.

I decided to contact the guys behind this app and that’s how I met Remco from TABWORLD.

Now I’m catching up with him again to discuss the growing impact AR on our lives – I’m in Dubai and Remco is back in Amsterdam so we connect via Skype.

Around the World in 80 Brands – meeting Remco Vroom, TABWorld

I ask Remco how he sees AR transforming our daily lives over the coming years.

“We live in a technology driven world where our mobile devices have become the remote control of our digital lives,” says Remco. “But over the coming years, we will increasingly use our mobile devices to connect to the real world too: payment in stores, managing energy consumption in our homes and even pre-ordering our coffee just seconds before we get to the café so we can skip the queue.

“Ok, and so where does TABWORLD come into the picture?”

“TABWORLD is a creative agency that uses technologies such as AR to tell brand stories to a mobile audience. Like the second-screen AR app you used at Cannes.”

After we chat a bit more about our work and upcoming projects, Remco has a suggestion: “Why don’t we develop a CoolBrands AR app? I’m sure we can add value to your content, and improve access and distribution.”

“Wow, that’s a nice idea,” I say. “But how would it work?”

“Easy,” says Remco. “I’ve been thinking about that: at the moment, you create fantastic books to share stories of brands and the visionary people behind the brands. In addition, you have a blog that you regularly update with interesting stories, but it’s the wrong way around.

“I’m not saying you should stop making the CoolBrands book – on the contrary. But let’s say we take a first step by adding a new digital dimension to the stories in your book. We create the CoolBrands mobile app and power it with augmented reality technology so we can ‘augment’ digital content from the internet on the canvas of your book pages. Readers can use the app to see the story unfold in unexpected ways. By looking at the pages through the apps’ camera view, they can literally touch and feel the story develop further in 3D. Now we are using creative technology to build a bridge between the canvas of your book and your audience’s mobile device. That’s a very powerful storytelling mechanism.

“The next step is to make sure that your audience can join you during your travels around the world. We need to make mobile your primary story-sharing platform and make the book the yearly masterpiece of your travels. Your augmented-reality-powered mobile app could tell your story on location and take the audience on a trip to the Spotify offices in New York. Or connect to your GoPro when you are surfing in Hawaii…”